Social Workout

Resetting my paleo button

So the past week, I've been having dairy on and off, mostly because we haven't had time to go grocery shopping and big hunks of cheese are just sitting around in the fridge.  I won't venture into TMI territory, but I think two words will sum it up quite nicely: gastrointestinal distress. 

A lot of my eating rules have been tossed out the window lately.  I dunno if it's stress or laziness or a combination of the two, but I haven't been good to my tummy for a while.  Yesterday I decided to hit the reset button and detox my system with 3 strictly paleo days.  So far, so good. 

After only 1 day of eating nothing but veggies, eggs, chicken and coconut milk in my coffee, I woke up to a less bloated tummy and zero cravings.  I feel a million times better already.

But there's no point in doing all this if I'm not going to be reasonably strict about it, and set some ground rules for myself.  I read this girl's fantastic blog, and loved how she writes down all of her rules.  And then tracks them every day for 4 weeks and 4 days.  The Type A side of me swoons.

We've been talking about going on a beach vacation in April, so I'm giving myself a deadline and holding myself accountable for what I eat. I'm using this space to set up my own food rules.  I might track things here, or I might track them in a notebook. 

Either way, I'm giving myself 6 weeks to form some seriously healthy habits.

drinks:

• consume at least 4 kleen kanteens full of water every day
• limit coffee consumption to 3 cups a day
• up to 1 cup of unsweetened coconut or almond milk daily (for coffee)
• an unlimited amount of unsweetened tea all day long
• no other beverages allowed (no booze, no diet sodas, no kombucha, no nothing)

eats:

• plan out eats for the week on Sundays, cook and freeze lunches in advance
• three meals + two snacks daily
• no eating in front of the tv or computer
• do not fear the fat
• no starchy carbs
• no dairy
• no nuts (I can't stop at an ounce.  I can't even stop at 4 ounces.)
• no nut butters (same deal)
• no dried fruit unless I dehydrate it myself (yup, portion control issues)
• no late night snacking - 9pm cut off
• no bites, licks, tastes (BLTs)
• no dessert every single day: no stogo, no larabars, no giant bowls of homemade berry sorbet or banana "icecream" (paleo candy, ya'll)
• one free meal each week (paleo candy, ya'll!!)

vitamins & supplements:

• fish oil twice daily
• B12 once daily
• st john's wort twice daily

deadline:

• april 5th